Cholesterol and Exercise - What To Do?

Image from Medical News Today

Things primary care physicians hear every single day on repeat.  

When it comes to cholesterol, it’s easy to point to genetic factors, activity or nutrition as the main causes to move the needle in one direction or another. 

When your doctor tells you that your cholesterol is high and you need to improve upon it, what do you do? 

For many, medication is an early treatment.  Before diving into Lipitor or other options, many of us seek lifestyle or behavior change first. If you are someone who would prefer to make a lifestyle change instead of adding medication to your morning To-Do list, below are a few examples of what your doctor may be getting at when they tell you to make a lifestyle change.   

Make a plan to exercise - There are a laundry list of items to mention when it comes to the benefits of exercise.  If your doctor is telling you to exercise, why are they saying that? 

This article highlights an important link between exercise levels and the transfer of cholesterol within your body.  The groups in this study were divided into active and inactive people using a rather simple test.  They asked the participants whether they were enrolled in an exercise program over the last year.  Basically speaking, they were asking the people if they had an exercise plan. Low and behold, the exercise plan people seemed to be reaping physiological benefits that the non-planned people were missing!   

What does this tell us? Something is better than nothing!  When your doctor says exercise, it doesn’t mean you need to do 3 sets of 12 of exercises that you dislike.  It can be your type of exercise that you enjoy. Hiking, biking, walking, gardening, bird watching, skating, mowing the lawn, playing music, the list goes on.  If you’re getting stuck as to what is your best option, remember, something is always better than nothing in this circumstance.

This article also highlights some key awesomeness when it comes to the specific correlations between exercise and HDL levels in older women.  It again uses the parameters of “practiced a regular exercise training program”.  Pretty broad and pretty telling that people who have a plan to exercise tend to reap the benefits of making exercise a part of their life.  

What’s the action point? Make a plan to be more active.  Have that plan be something that you can be excited about.  What do you enjoy doing that is also physically active? When can you do it? Book it in your schedule and reap the benefits! 

Consider adding cardiovascular exercise - Cardiovascular exercise is commonly looked upon as the one that stinks to do. “I hate cardio” tends to be slapped onto t-shirts and a rally cry can be heard from towns over.  

I’m the last person that is going to ask someone to go for a jog, there are plenty of options out there that you may enjoy, like biking, hiking, using the helix machine or trying out a paddling team.  

When your doctor asks you to try some cardiovascular exercise, they are mainly asking you to find the benefits of improving your cardiovascular health.  Namely, VO2 maximum, heart rate and capillary density.   

This article is a great cumulative piece on a variety of research articles pertaining to cardiovascular exercise and cholesterol levels.  What were the take-homes for you? 

Increase the volume of cardiovascular exercise - It was commonly found that in order for exercise to have an impact on cholesterol levels, there needed to be elevated amounts of it.  This means that your cardiovascular exercise needs to increase over time.  If at first you are doing five minutes of exercise, you should be finding ways to increase that to seven or eight minutes and from there moving higher. If your doctor is telling you to exercise, know that you are signing up to be consistently increasing the amount of exercise that you’re doing.  What you’re doing today for cardiovascular exercise shouldn’t be what you’re doing in three months.  Progress!  

Increase the intensity of cardiovascular exercise - The HIIT movement has come and gone, spurred by some research showing correlations between high intensity cardio and improved HDL cholesterol levels.  While the findings here are mixed, you can rest assured that adding some cardiovascular intensity into your routine is a solid idea!  Keep in mind, you should be knowledgeable of cardiovascular risk factors and how they apply to you.  If you are in need of further knowledge to ensure you are increasing intensity safely, consult a professional!  

Stress Management - Correlations between health markers and stress levels continue to multiply as research turns its eye to the effects of chronic stress.

This article is one example of possible correlations between depression and reduced high density lipoprotein levels (HDL - “good cholesterol”).  Not only could there be direct physiological impacts of higher stress levels but the trickle down effect of managing your stress can lead to a more active lifestyle.  While this is #3 on this list, an argument could be made for it to be the headliner! 

At SOMA VT, our mission is to build clients’ relationships with fitness and health through individualized plans and community. Reach out to our team for more info and to get your free consultation.